Gods
The Gods of the Special Region differ from any Earthly religion in that they are entities that are demonstrably extant, and capable of directly interacting with people within the Special Region by manipulating factors associated with their area. Known Gods *Emroy: God of Darkness *Hardy: Goddess of the Underworld *Elange: God of Knowledge, twin of Ral/La *Duncan: God of Blacksmithing *Miritta: Goddess of Fertility *Wareharun: Goddess of Trees and Forests *Flare: God of the Sun *Palapon: God of Revenge *Zufmuut: God of Light and Order *Deldort: God of Covenants *Lunaryur: God of Music *Ral/La: Goddess of Learning, twin of Elange Abilities and Nature The Gods of the Special Region tend to use their respective abilities of their proscribed domain to grant benefits to their followers; For instance, Miritta grants her followers protection from death in childbirth, and its is possible that La & Elange grants a greater ability to learn and retain knowledge, given how quickly Lelei La Lelena is capable of learning the Japanese language and other information. Followers often include the first part of the name of their god as their middle name, as seen for Yao Haa Dushi who changed her name to Yao Ro Dushi after she switched from Hardy to Rory. Little is known about the true nature of the gods of the Special Region save that, according to Rory, the gods are considered "the gardeners of the Special Region, that they can be considered a 'tree', where the deities 'cut the branches that have grown too big.'" The gods, with the exception of Hardy who resides in the "Underworld", live in their own realm called "Heaven". It is religiously believed that Heaven is a province that is literally located above the clouds but this is proven to be a fallacy as it is confirmed by Rory that this is not the case. The gods of the Special Region do not appear to be capable of directly affecting the mortal realm as they no longer possess physical bodies unless they choose to take the bodies of their followers which would ultimately destroy most of the followers' minds who cannot cope with the divine possession. It is not known how many of the gods of the Special Region were once mortal apostles who ascended to divinity; However, it is known that Wareharun is a forest of sapient trees that literally evolved to the point of obtaining godlike power, suggesting some of the deities may in fact be humanoid lifeforms which have reached a pinnacle of evolution. Unlike Earth, the Special Region doesn't have multiple gods for a specific aspects since there are no multiple mythologies in Special Region. Therefore, Apostle and Gods from Special Region finds it is strange that Earth has multiple deities for one specific aspect (Hades, Yama and Anubis are gods of the underworld). Some gods even call this phenomenon messy. Apostles The Gods are capable of choosing people as apostles, who in return gain demi-godhood and superhuman strength and durability. Apostles of the gods are capable of ascending to to godhood after a period of service, which would usually last for about a thousand years, and take on a role in the pantheon of the Special Region. Magical, Scientific And Technological Regression of Mortals The Gods of the Special Region knows how the world operates in which can be explained through science like the Earth circles around the Sun. However, they let the mortal world figures out for themselves. “After that, she wants us to curb the spread of technology and knowledge into the Special Region. The implication is that the Special Region has its own values, culture and mindset, and rapid changes in them are not a good thing.”- Morita explains to Itami about Lelei's demand in curbing the advancement of technology in Special Region because of the wills of the Gods in exchange she will open the Gate for the Japanese in the future, depicted in volume 8 chapter 6 of the light novel. Despite their seemly benevolent nature, they are actually very tyrannical to mortals since it is revealed that they responsible for the stagnation of not only science and technology but also magic in the Special Region as they realized that mortals can outclass them with their scientific and magical research about how the world and nature works. As the result, they will try everything to prevent mortals in the Special Region from developing further in their knowledge and understanding science as well as magic through death threats, or inciting worshipers to lynch researchers who have the potential to discover revolutionary things that will improve the daily lives of people in the Special Region. The prime example is that Hardy threatens Lelei with death if she tries to practice or share her knowledge about her improved magic that Lelei gained from her research into the science form Earth or Rory states that she will have to kill her if she ever utters the concept of nuclear fusion. However, despite the circumstances, they still allow mortals, like the Sages of in Rondel to research and understand science and nature as long as it doesn't create or discovery anything they consider to be revolutionary. The opening of the Gate to the world of the technologically advanced Earth only makes their justification for suppressing advancement stronger. Hardy, Emroy as well as La and Elange mockingly states that Earth Gods like Zeus, Athena or Amaterasu are fools who let mortal surpass them with technology. To them significant technologies such as cloning and space travel are like mortals playing at god. When the role the Gods have played in the technological stagnation of the Special Region was widely revealed after the Imperial Civil War, its infuriates most intellectual mages and researchers in Rondel, especially Lelei, Cato and Mimoza, since they cannot pursue their intellectual pursuits freely to advance the Special Region in scientific knowledge and understanding causing Lelei and most of the mages in Rondel to disown most of the gods. Furthermore, it is also cause Pina and others officials in the Empire to revile the Gods since it makes the Empire and the Special Region to be eternally at the mercy to any kind of technologically superior or otherwise powerful forces that come from worlds beyond the Gate, such as the JSDF or the Arachnid. Apocryph, Prophesied End of the World According to Rory, it is apocalyptic prophesied that tens, hundreds of thousands, perhaps even hundreds of millions of years later, the gods will leave and humans will vanish from the Special Region. At that point the fog of the void will swallow the world and return it to primal chaos. The name of the fog is called the Apocryph. The Gods of the Special Region is bound by their planet in which if the planet where the Special Region is located is destroyed. The Gods will perish. Furthermore, it is known that the Gods cannot escape to another planet. As the result, most of the Gods in the Special Region amazes to find that people from Earth can travel through space in which they can escape their extinction in the future. Relationship between Gods The relationship between Gods are not always in good term due to their contradictory ideologies and aspects, causing them to indirectly fight against each others in either bidding their Apostles in a fight or even stealing with one another. For example, Emroy and Zufmuut are mortal enemies since Emroy is the god of darkness and chaos while Zufmuut is god of order and light or Hardy used to snatch Emroy's Amazonian souls without his permission. Despite their disagreement, they always agree in the common term in controlling mortals and preventing them from advancing in science, knowledge and technology as Hardy and Emroy agree that the JSDF is not allow to spread the knowledge and usage of advanced technologies to the Special Region. Notes & Trivia *The Gods of the Special Region seem to be closely based, or inspired by the the Deities that are part of the Dungeons & Dragons games, in how they interact and affect their world / domains. *It is seems that the Gods treat the Special Region like their own personal petting zoo. Gallery Deities Suppress Technological Advancement.png|Rory Mercury reveals that the Gods and the Apostles are responsible for technological stagnation and regression in the Special Region. Category:Terminology Category:God